Rising Covenant (Living Covenant Trilogy Book 1) (15 page)

“Paris Princeton does not need your love … that way,” Bob said, choosing his words carefully. “She does need your love, though. You have to decide whether you’re willing to forgive, forget and move on. You have free will, Zoe Lake. It is time to use it.”

“You’re saying I’ll regret letting Paris die, yet I’m terrified that I’ll regret it if I let her live,” I said. “If she ever does something that hurts Aric … .”

“The wolf can take care of himself. He thrives on taking care of you. Yours is a symbiotic relationship. It will never wane as long as you make it a priority.”

“I guess that means I have to forgive Paris,” I mused.

“That is entirely up to you,” Bob said. “The future doesn’t necessarily become darker without her in your life. You will miss her light, though.”

“Well, thanks,” I said, feigning chipperness. “I appreciate you bringing me down into this dark hole so you could give me deep thoughts. You really brightened my day.”

“My final word of warning is this,” Bob said, ignoring my snark. “You tap into your powers through rage. In the end, it will be love that will drive you to victory. When the moment comes, do not be afraid to love.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“You will … and soon,” Bob said. “Now, if I’m not mistaken, the wolf is frantic. He needs you to return to him before he shreds the forest.”

That sounded good to me. “Beam me up, Scotty.”

Bob pursed his lips. “You are odd.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment from a guy who lives in a hole in the ground.”

“I do not live here,” Bob said. “This is merely a meeting place. I have been here for a few days waiting for you. I left long enough to deliver a message to you and then returned.”

“A message?”

Bob arched an eyebrow, waiting for me to figure out what he was trying to say without uttering the words.

“You put the note under our door,” I said, realization dawning. “You led me out here. Why?”

“Quinn wanted the upper hand,” Bob said. “I gave it to you. He was not expecting you for days. He’s not ready for you. The truth is, he will never be ready for you. This needs to be ended with expediency, though, and that is why I left the message for you.”

“Well, thank you.”

“I do not need thanks,” Bob said. “I need you to win.”

“Are you going to continue watching me?”

“Of course,” Bob said, smirking. “You’ve become my favorite television show – even better than
Star Trek
.”

That was a weird way to put it, but I would take it. “Send me home. I’m ready.”

“You’ve always been ready, Zoe Lake. You merely needed a push to realize it. Go with grace – and burn the power-hungry to the ground.”

I
popped back
into the meadow in almost the exact spot I had been standing before disappearing.

Aric roared my name as he raced to my side, pulling me against his chest. He trembled. “Where were you?”

“It’s kind of a long story,” I said, giving in to the hug even though we had things to do before darkness settled.

“You scared me, Zoe,” Aric said, cupping the back of my head and tangling his fingers in my hair. “Once second you were there and the next you weren’t.” He pulled back and grabbed both of my shoulders. I worried he was going to shake me for a moment. “Don’t ever do that again.”

“I didn’t technically do it this time,” I said.

“Where were you?” Aric was upset.

“I’m going to tell you,” I said, my eyes landing on Paris. “We have to set our security here, though. Paris, grab some wood for a fire.”

Paris mutely nodded. I could tell she’d been crying. When she disappeared, I turned my attention back to Aric. “Did you yell at her?”

“You disappeared, Zoe,” Aric said, his voice cracking. “You were gone for more than twenty minutes. You were there one second … close enough to touch … and then you were just gone. I … .”

“You thought she led us here as a trap,” I finished. “The thought occurred to me, too. We have a few things to discuss. Paris didn’t do this, though. I promise.”

“I … .”

“Grab all of our stuff and put it in the center of the fairy ring,” I ordered.

“Why right here?”

“Let’s just say I got some interesting advice and leave it at that for now.” I rolled up onto the balls of my feet and kissed his cheek. “It’s going to be okay.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Aric grumbled, moving to the edge of the meadow where he’d discarded his pack. “You weren’t screaming for twenty minutes.”

“No, but I had to hang out with Bob.”

“Who’s Bob?”

“I’m still not sure,” I admitted. “I think you would probably like him. He likes to walk around without his shirt off all of the time, too.”

“
T
HAT
is
… I don’t even know what to say.” Paris was flabbergasted when I finished telling my story.

Aric busied himself with dinner for the tale, but afterward he stared at the pan as the beans sizzled, and he seemed lost in thought.

“What are you thinking, my lord?”

Aric didn’t bother mustering a smile. “I think he could have taken you away and there’s not a thing I could’ve done about it.”

“Don’t be morose,” I said, dropping to my knees and moving him away from the pan with my hips. “Don’t burn our dinner either. I’m starving. Talking to a weird fortune cookie guy in a hole in the ground really takes it out of you.”

Aric grabbed a hank of my hair and ran it through his fingers. “Thank you for staying.”

I knit my eyebrows together. “What? Where would I go?”

“You said he offered to take you somewhere else,” Aric replied. “I know a lot of people would have trouble turning that down.”

“I’m not a lot of people,” I said, stirring the beans. “We’re all going to be stinking this place up tonight. I’ve seen
Blazing Saddles
. I know what beans and a campfire lead to.”

“Are you honestly telling me it didn’t even cross your mind to go with him?” Aric was doubtful.

“Aric, get a grip,” I shot back. “Why would I want to go someplace else when I’m already the queen of this world?”

“But … .”

“Knock it off,” I ordered. “We have big things to talk about tonight and I do not need you having a meltdown. For the record, I never want to go anywhere else. I already have the perfect home and boyfriend. Soon I’m going to have the perfect ring … maybe … oh, who am I kidding? You’re never going to give me that ring.”

Aric jerked me into his arms and held me close, almost smothering me in his efforts. “I’m going to buy you eighty rings.”

“I only want one,” I said. “I want the one in our safe at home. It’s cruel and unusual to let me see that ring and then lock it away.”

Aric finally managed to smile. “I didn’t show it to you. You pitched a fit, so I had to ruin my plans to shut you up.”

“Yes, well, I’m odd,” I said. “That’s what Bob told me anyway.”

“Are you sure his name was Bob?” Paris asked. She was engaged in the conversation, but nervous I would get angry with her again. I didn’t blame her.

“No. Whatever his name was it started with a C – or maybe a K,” I answered. “It was way too long and I didn’t care enough to try to learn it. He didn’t seem to care either.”

“Did he say why he left the note under our door?” Aric asked.

“He said he wanted to get me moving as fast as possible because Quinn wasn’t ready for me yet,” I replied. “He also said there’s no way Quinn can take my powers or wield the book as a weapon.”

“Just so someone says it, are we sure we want to believe the weird guy living in the hole in the ground?” Paris asked.

“He seemed sincere,” I replied.

“That doesn’t mean he wasn’t some sort of trickster,” Aric pointed out.

“He said you and I were bound forever, and as long as I survived you would survive,” I said. “Now, I might believe him because I want to believe him, but I choose to have faith in what he told me.”

“Since when are you a believer?” Aric pressed.

“Since … the earth swallowed me up and dropped me in a hole that had very few bugs and absolutely no snakes,” I said. “Whoever Bob was, he knew a lot about us. He said I’d been on his radar ever since I healed you behind the library.”

“What else did he say?”

“Well, he talked like a pretentious a-hole most of the time, but some of the stuff he said made some sense,” I said. “A lot of it was total crap, though. He said if they identified me for what I was as a child, they probably would have taken me from my parents. Because I was raised without an overblown ego … .”

Aric snorted, causing me to shoot him a dark look.

“… they decided to watch what happened,” I finished. “He said I never craved power because I didn’t know I had it. He also said that I would be able to figure out a way to use the book to help us, but he wouldn’t tell me how. Where is the book?”

“Here,” Aric said, rummaging through his pack until he found it. He handed it to me and then took over cooking duties. “I’ve returned to Earth and am no longer freaking out about the possibility of you going anywhere. I do not want to eat burned beans, though, so I’ll take it from here.”

“It’s a good thing you’re hot,” I muttered.

“I think that about you at least three times a week,” Aric shot back.

I kissed his cheek and then moved back to the spot in front of the tree so I could study the book. “Do you think this book can make me more powerful?”

“Do you want it to?” Aric asked.

“Not really. I’m already freaked out by the powers I have. I don’t need more of them screwing up our lives. No tree in our yard is safe, after all.”

“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Paris interjected quietly.

I glanced at her. “What do you think he meant?”

“Bob said the book could never be wielded by Quinn,” Paris said. “Maybe that’s because the book was changed during the centuries it was missing.”

I waited for her to continue.

“Think about it,” Paris prodded. “Maybe someone took that book because it was dangerous and turned it into something useful for the people it was meant to hurt.”

“Maybe,” I conceded. “Or maybe whoever made the book had no idea what he was doing. It doesn’t matter. I know I’m going to have to torch most of that compound. I’ve come to grips with it.”

“Maybe not, baby,” Aric said, removing the pan from the fire and resting it against a rock to cool. “I’ve been thinking about this. I think a show of force might be enough to scare most of Quinn’s followers away.”

“Like?”

“Well, I’m curious about this compound,” Aric said, shifting his eyes to Paris. “What should we expect?”

“It’s basically a big house in the middle of the woods,” Paris said. “It’s kind of a mansion. I think some rich kook built it in the 1960s because he was convinced that the world was going to be taken over by communists. That’s what Quinn said, anyway.

“There are technically five buildings on the compound,” she continued. “There’s a main house, a detached garage, a guesthouse, a greenhouse where they grow most of the food they eat, and a watchtower.”

“Tell me about the watchtower,” Aric said, his eyes thoughtful. “Is it set apart from everything else?”

“It’s in the front of the property,” Paris replied. “The compound is surrounded by an iron fence. It’s pretty tall. You can’t climb over it. Every twenty feet or so there is a column to hold the fence in place. Those columns are cement.”

“Is the house set back on the property?”

“More in the middle.”

“Is there any reason that Quinn would hold Ted and Nancy in the watchtower?” Aric asked.

“I don’t see how that would work,” Paris said. “It’s really tall, but narrow. The main floor has a little den area with a television and a bathroom. There’s a refrigerator in there, too. There is no basement, though. The stairway is spiral and goes up to a walkway. There’s nothing else there.”

“Then that’s where Zoe is going to make her show of force,” Aric said, his jaw clenched.

“That sounds great,” I enthused. “How?”

“You’re going to blow it up.”

I stilled. “How am I going to do that?”

“The same way you set things on fire,” Aric replied. “All you have to do is make sure the fire is hot enough. Even if you can’t blow it up, if you set it on fire that’s bound to be enough to scare at least half of Quinn’s followers.”

“That still leaves up to fifteen people for us to handle,” I reminded him.

“I know. They’re going to be scattered, though. If we’re lucky, Quinn will rethink his position and run.”

“When have we ever gotten that lucky?”

“I got lucky the day I met you,” Aric said, shooting me a charming grin. “I honestly think this is going to be our best course of action, Zoe. We want to send them a clear message.”

“What if they bring my parents out and threaten them in front of me?”

“I hate to say it, but that’s what I’m hoping for,” Aric said. “We need to know where your parents are when things really get going. That way … .”

“I can burn the whole place down without accidentally getting them,” I finished for him. “It’s okay. You can say it.”

“You’re strong,” Aric said, resting his hand on my shoulder. “We’re going to do this together and everything is going to work out.”

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself when you say that?”

“Both.” Aric gave me a soft kiss. “Let’s eat.” He reached for paper plates to dole out the food but I stilled him with a hand on his arm. His eyes were curious when they met mine. “What?”

I didn’t respond, instead pointing to the other side of the invisible perimeter, where a large wolf dug in the dirt, snuffling as it searched. The animal was larger than a normal wolf, black fur coating its body everywhere but its white-barreled chest.

Aric and I exchanged a look.

“What do you want to do?” he whispered.

“I have an idea.”

“Oh, I’m going to hate this,” Aric muttered.

“Just … trust me.”

I got to my feet and moved in the direction of the wolf. He showed no signs of seeing or hearing me. I cast a look back in Paris’ direction and pressed a finger to my lips, warning her to be silent. She mutely nodded.

Aric was right behind me. He didn’t speak. He waited for me to act – so that’s what I did. I dropped the magical shield, catching the wolf off guard. Before it could move I reached out with a glowing hand – red fire licking my fingers – and grabbed the wolf’s scruff.

“Welcome to camp,” I muttered before dragging it inside the fairy ring as it helplessly yelped. I threw the perimeter back up, closing us off to interlopers in case our visitor wasn’t alone, and smiled at the wolf. “You’re going to wish you’d picked a different side, Fido.”